Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Hiding Wires

This should probably go in the stereo section, but I don't keep up with anything besides the Water Cooler.

Went by the ex's a couple of weeks ago to hook up her HTIB, and she was asking about ways of hiding the wire in her condo... I think it was Craig that was using some paintable plastic, almost a flat platic conduit. Anyone got a solution?

Bren R.

I’m assuming your just trying to hide speaker wire? Are there any areas you can wedge the wire between the carpet and the wall? Like you mentioned the local hardware store sell self adhesive plastic conduit that snaps open and closed so you can even run HDMI or VGA cables through it, but long runs of that stuff get expensive.

In my apartment I just ran the 16 gauge speaker wires under thick throw rugs and couldn’t even tell they were there.

Probably not a solution for you but I’ll throw it out there for any lurkers who happen across this thread. Since I’ve got curtains running around most of my room I used double rod brackets. The outer hole carries the curtain rod while the inner one will have 1 1/2” black PVC pipe. All the wires, speaker, HDMI and VGA all fit through it with “T” fittings everywhere I need wire to drop down. Not many people are likely to be able to use this method but since the curtain were already going in the only additional cost was the PVC pipe and fittings the total cost of which is about $20.00. Since the curtains and everything above them is black you can’t even see them.

You might be thinking of this, since I post this fairly often when someone has mounting concerns with their QS speakers.

It's Wiremold, a paintable surface mount raceway. The back half attaches to the wall and, while holding the cable positioned correctly, the paintable cover snaps on. Yes, I got it at Home Depot or Lowes.

If it the set up permits, you can remove your floor trim. Underneath, there is normally enough space below the bottom of the drywall to hide wires then put the baseboard back on. If not, it's easy to trim some off the bottom drywall off as it will again be hidden by the trim.

Once you get to the area you want a speaker, cut a hole in the wall where it the speaker will be. Outlet height for a floorstander or exactly where the speaker will be for a wall unit mounted like the picture above. It's very easy to use a fish to get the wire up to this hole and you can add an wall plate with the appropriate hole, terminate it on a wall plate with the proper ends, or just hide the hole with the speaker.

You can usually even get around a door in this manner as the door probably has trim running up and around it that can be temporarily removed as well.

The only drawback is that you might need to touch up some paint when you are done.

I use the Wiremold stuff too, works great.

Is that your setup? Nice touch adding the back panel. How far away is that speaker from the adjoining corner wall?

A few years back when I installed my HTIB, I put some some of the wiremold stuff, (like in picture above, but more square shaped) on the wall. It has a sticky backing to it. I would not do this again unless I was able to use screws to attach it to the wall. When I go to pull it off of the wall. It takes the entire layer of paint with it leaving a wide nasty looking gash in the wall that has to be mended and repainted.

Dean, that's brilliant!

Um, you, too, Mark.

Mine didn't take brilliance...just 10 or 15 bucks!

My wiremold stuff is screwed into the walls as well. I have old horsehair plaster and I think the adhesive wouldn't have lasted. I'd rather patch a few small holes.

My QS8s are only about 4-5" from the back wall that my couch is up against. The QS's do well, though I know that they would be better if I could mount them properly.

Oh, jeeez. I just fed all of you a straight line.

No, you should really stick to the ported speakers for that.

Nice routing on the mounting plaque.

Thanks, Mark... that was the stuff I was thinking of.

Bren R.

Thanks Tom. I looked back at my receipt and actually highballed the price I paid it was just under $15.00 but that gets me cable runs 360 degrees around the room. Not sure exactly what brand Mark used but the local stuff similar to that cost about $8.00/6’ and I needed about 80’ total of the stuff to run wires all the way around the room to the R/wide and R/surround plus a double run to the back wall since I wouldn’t be able to fit 2xHDMI, 1xVGA and 4x14gauge wire in one of them. Now I still have room for another double HDMI and single VGA run if I add a second projector later and probably enough space left over to upgrade to at least a 25.4 speaker configuration.

BTW running the wiring through the vaulted ceiling to the back and right walls was not doable which is why I had to come up with another method. Plus have you ever climbed up in an attic in Phoenix during the Summer? Not pleasant if I had to change or add something later.

Attics in Virginia in the mid-summer are no better. I installed a plywood floor in my attic a few years ago. I must have sweat a gallon while I was up there. I was worried that I was going to electrocute myself with the circular saw.

I was an electrician for my Dad as a kid in Bullhead City, AZ and spent many a day during the summer in an attic. I preferred to think of it as a luxury spa with an itchy sauna. My current attic and I in NC know each other very well also these days.

Gets a tad warm in Bullhead City.


I've only lived in Virginia in Jan and Feb and I wouldn't want to go into an
attic then either.